Finding the Missing Link
by raebaby724
Summary: Riley Owens grew up in Charming, but left immediately after high school to attend college. While there, she discovers some essential links to her family that ends up leading her back to Charming. Once she goes back will she ever be able to get out again? Will she want to? Will her new family ties keep her close, or will it be something else entirely?


**I own my OC's, and the idea for this story. That's all.**

**Prologue **

Riley cruised down the Pacific Coast Highway, with the top down on her Jeep Wrangler, towing her precious baby behind her, and blasting Nirvana as loud as she could. Her Ray-Ban Wayfarer's shielded her eyes from the blinding sunlight, and while they slightly aided in easing her hangover, she was sure the majority of the headache stemmed not from what she drank the night before, but more so from the awareness and knowledge that she was currently en route to the town she swore she would never return to, come hell or high water. Yet here she was with little more than an hour to go remaining in her journey. As far as she knew, nobody other than her parents were aware of her impending arrival, and she doubted that her mother cared enough to inform anyone, while she knew her father would keep her personal matters private.

Unlike most kids who left their hometown immediately after high school and vowed never to return, Riley didn't have a bad childhood or grow up in a rough town. She wasn't desperate to leave an ex behind her to never be seen again, nor was she a social outcast desperate to finally leave a bad or non-existent reputation behind and reinvent her at college. No, none of these common factors applied to her. She had sworn off returning because she didn't want to be stuck in a dead-end job, playing housewife and mommy far too soon, and become stuck in a life she would only end up resenting far too soon and unfairly. Simply, Riley didn't want to become her mother.

Their relationship had always been strained, ever since Riley found out her mother was hiding some essential information about Riley's biological family at the tender age of 14, from none other than her cousin. What had appalled Riley the most, and singlehandedly almost destroyed their relationship beyond repair, was the fact that the information was something her mother denied ever having any knowledge of. Obviously, that had all been a lie. So, as soon as Riley turned 18 and graduated, she left early for college and began the hunt for her biological family, not because she wanted to find her birth parents, but because she wanted to find her brothers that she had been told "didn't exist" from the time she was five until the truth came out when she was fourteen.

Ironically enough, it was finding her older brother who had also been adopted that had her returning home, and not only home, but to the place where she had spent countless hours playing as a child, goofing off after school, studying and tutoring, working in the summer, and sneaking around stealing alcohol and hits of a random joint here and there once she had reached high school.

* * *

_ Riley leaned back in her computer chair with a hard sigh, her eyes dry and tired behind her glasses from staring at her Mac's screen for the past few hours. She had finally finished up her last paper for her Forensic Accounting class, and other than studying for her finals, taking them, and hopefully passing, she was officially finished with college. It had taken her an extra year and a half, but that was her own fault for deciding to double major once she was three years into school. She couldn't complain though. She not only had a "cake-walk" major in Communications with a Public Relations emphasis, but she also had a degree in Accounting, with a heavy emphasis on Forensic Accounting. She was damn proud of herself and only wished she was close enough to both her parents to have someone besides her dad to be proud of her._

"_Better yet," she thought to herself almost bitterly, "I wish I could find my brothers so I could make __**them **__proud of me too."_

_ With the thought in mind, she pulled up Safari and did a quick Google search – as she occasionally did – for her eldest brother's name, as it was all she knew about the two. She was also aware of her biological parent's names, but she didn't consider them her parents and had little to no interest in finding them, or ever contacting them. Despite the differences she had with her adoptive mother, she considered the woman her mom and always would, just as she would always consider her adoptive father her dad, and more often than not her best friend as well. What Riley didn't expect was for the top search result to be so different than all the previous times she had searched his name. She didn't expect her heart to drop to her stomach, for her breath to catch in the back of her throat, and for brief summary to cause her to spring up from her slouched position in the chair. Quickly clicking on the link, she was redirected to a funeral home's obituary page where she prayed her worst dream hadn't come true. Her brother couldn't be gone before she ever had a chance to even meet him. As she hurried and read from the beginning, she quickly began to realize that it had been her paternal grandmother who passed, and her brother was listed as a surviving relative. She finally had cracked it though, because there he was, listed as Michael "James" Washington. All her Facebook searches for Michael Washington had been for nothing because he apparently went by James, what she assumed was his middle name._

* * *

As she let her thoughts drift back to the present Riley had to laugh quietly to herself. She had never once expected her eldest brother to know not only her name, as well as their other brother's, and to be keeping tabs on her, but he had been. He never contacted either of them for fear that they didn't even know they were adopted, but he had apparently been stalking her via Facebook for a few years and was extremely proud of her and her accomplishments at college. He had even surprised her and came to her graduation, then stuck around for the following week so they could get to know each other more. It was during that week that he had revealed their middle sibling's name to her. What had shocked poor Riley the most was not only the fact that he had apparently moved to her hometown while she had been away at college, but that he didn't share the same father as them.

The closer she got to Charming, California, the more excited Riley became to finally meet the missing link. She would be meeting Juan Carlos Ortiz so shortly for lunch at Teller Morrow, and while a huge part of her hoped he wasn't a member of the Sons, she knew in her heart that he would be. She could only imagine the reaction of a few other members who she hadn't seen nor spoken to in a little over six years.

Pushing her foot down on the gas pedal a little harder, she sped towards Charming. Whatever was in store for her beyond those city limits would dramatically impact her future she knew, but she never in a million years could have prepared herself for just quite how dramatically that would be.

* * *

_** In case you haven't noticed – this story will be completely AU. Juice's father isn't black in this story, he's Puerto Rican and his mother (as well as Riley and James') is white. There will be no sick incestuous situations WHATSOEVER. Riley obviously has a history with the Son's, but as to whom that history is with or what it has to do with, you'll find out later. Also if anyone is interested in being a Beta for me, please message me or put it in your review with your email. Anyway, I hoped you liked the intro. Please Review :) and I will update ASAP! Thank you!**_

_**-Rach**_


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